The general arrangement for mounting a cymbal onto a drum or other suitable support includes a rod or post which terminates at its upper extremity in a reduced threaded end portion over which the cymbal is fitted and secured in place by a washer and wing nut or other suitable fastening and retaining means.
In a typical mounting arrangement, a washer-like rounded metal disc or cup is fitted against a small shoulder on the rod. A felt washer or pad rests on the cup. The rod is covered by a rubber or plastic sleeve. The central hole of the cymbal is fitted over the rod around the sleeve, and the cymbal rests above the felt pad, supported by the metal cup. A rubber or leather spacing washer is positioned over the rod above the cymbal, and a wing nut is screwed down against the spacing washer.
The wing nut fastener configuration just described has several drawbacks. Cymbals are usually removed from their stands for transporting musical equipment from one location to another, and in the accompanying mounting and disassembly process the multiplicity of small fastening pieces--wing nut, plastic sleeve and washer--are inconvenient to use and can easily become lost. Furthermore, because the wing nut is usually a separate piece from the plastic sleeve and washer, it tends to loosen during cymbal playing.
Sometimes a musician may want to play a cymbal in a "loose" mode to produce a reverberating sound with the cymbal held freely and loosely by the fastener. Other times the musician may prefer to play the cymbal in a "mute" or "choked" mode to produce a muted sound with the cymbal tightly clamped by screwing the wing nut tightly to the stand. Though the wing nut fastener arrangement offers the choice of either mode of playing, separate long and short sleeve elements are needed to provide this option, and there is a tendency for the vibrations of the reverberating cymbal to loosen the wing nut during the "loose" mode of playing.
Some modifications of the general cymbal fastener arrangement described above are shown in Kiemle, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,163,949; Gaylor, 3,336,827; Cordes, 3,705,528; and Herman, 3,994,198. These devices disclose cymbal fasteners directed toward overcoming the inconvenience of the standard wing nut fasteners during cymbal mounting and disassembly. However, unlike the wing nut fastener, these modified devices do not offer the option of playing the cymbal in either a "loose" mode or a "mute" mode.